Madness
by MasterofPhantoms
Summary: Felix and company are trekking through the endless Yampi Desert, on a quest to reach Alhafra. But Felix might be losing his grip on reality... and maybe even his own sanity. Chapter 3 is up.
1. Brink

The party had trekked on through the Yampi Desert for hours on end, and their limited supply of food and water was nearly gone. _I bet if we hadn't brought Kraden along with us, our supplies wouldn't be so low,_ Felix thought bitterly.

Felix had good reason to state this: Kraden was, after all, a scholar. He was old, weak, and grew tired and short of breath very quickly. Many times the whole group needed to halt and wait for Kraden to catch up. Kraden certainly wasn't a fighter, and he didn't contribute to the group in any direct way. Whenever a roaming band of mercenaries or pack of wolves came along he'd cower and hide while Jenna, Felix, and Sheba had to face the adversaries alone. Three inexperienced Adepts engaging in a slaughter against powerful foes.

Then Felix remembered Jenna. She was his sister, and he loved her to death, but sometimes, through a combination of several factors (most of which were heat and pent-up frustration), he felt like slapping her. She was truly what his friends back in Vale some time ago would have called a "drama queen." She whined so much that Felix was sure he would explode. Jenna always complained about how dry her throat was, or how sweaty her clothes were, or how cold she was, among several other things. _When we get out of this god-forsaken desert, I'm going to set her straight._ Another bitter thought, he noted.

Felix relived the memory of how she handled the rigorous traveling pace when they were taken hostage by Saturos and Menardi. On the first leg of their journey, they were caught in a ferocious thunderstorm, and the whole group was forced to take refuge in the caves that led to Imil. Even in the caves, the wind still blew through with a ferocity that surprised the whole group, even veterans like Saturos and Menardi. It was cold that night, and while the shelter kept them dry, it was not enough. Jenna had broken down into tears, prompting their sadistic party leaders to beat her until she stopped weeping.

Perhaps the one Felix favored most was Sheba. She did her part, pulled her own weight, and generally stayed the hell out of everybody's way. Her face always radiated a neutral expression. That was probably the reason why Felix preferred her over the other members of the group. Sheba didn't speak unless she had something worthwhile to say, served as their eyes and ears, and, above all, wasn't trying to impress Felix. He hated nothing more than a kiss-up. Within his mind, Felix said a silent thank-you to Sheba for making their journey more bearable. _If Sheba was just like Jenna, I'd never have been able to hold it all together._

"You're welcome, Felix," Sheba blurted suddenly.

Felix jolted as if he were shocked. That mind read ability of hers was really starting to piss him off. "Quit it, Sheba!" Felix snapped.

"Sorry," she said quietly.

Felix sighed. All of the heat of the unrelenting sun during the day and the frigid temperatures at night were starting to peel away at his sanity. _Wonderful,_ Felix thought. _Now I have to apologize. I'll do it later._

"Jeez, Felix. Why are so grumpy?" Jenna inquired.

Felix felt veins bulging in his temples. He was behaving like a time bomb, all because of her. Each time she commented on something he did, five minutes were dropped from the time before he'd detonate.

"I mean, you're always yelling at me, yapping at Sheba, telling Kraden to hurry up," Jenna stated. "What is up with you, Felix?"

"Nothing," he spoke tersely.

"Uh, really? 'Cause it sure seems like something is wrong with you. I think you need a break."

_Shut up,_ Felix thought.

"Tell you what: how about you just follow along and let me lead the group for the next couple of miles?"

"No."

"Well, why not?"

"Because you have no idea which direction Alhafra is," Felix responded coldly.

"Yes I do!" Jenna exclaimed.

"No, you don't!"

"Yes, I do. It's north."

At this point, Felix stopped in his tracks and turned around. Sheba moved away from his piercing death glare. He clapped his hands in a mock gesture. "Excellent, genius. But which was north?"

"_That way!_" Jenna thrust her arm out northwards.

"She's right, Felix," Kraden said. "We've been hiking for around for about six hours. Look up in the sky. The sun is about to set. It's currently afternoon, which means that the sun is descending towards the west. North is that way." Kraden pointed a frail arm in the same direction Jenna was pointing.

"Dammit!" Felix screamed, throwing his arms up in the air. "All right, Jenna, have it your way. If we're lucky, under your leadership we'll only run out of supplies by tomorrow!"

"Felix, we're only five days from Alhafra. There must be another oasis around here somewhere," Jenna rebutted.

"Jenna, we're _humans!_ If we do not take water within seventy-two hours, we will die. After tomorrow, we will be unable to ration our water any longer. There's simply too little of it! And you might as well forget about finding another oasis, because I can guarantee you that the one we stopped at yesterday is the only one in this desert, and it is miles behind us."

"We're going through what I said would happen yesterday!" Jenna exclaimed.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Felix shouted back.

"Felix, I said that if we all rested at that oasis for a day, then we would have the energy to move on!"

"Like those pathetic cowards who were fawning at that thing like dogs to raw meat? We are better than that!"

"There you go again!" Jenna yelled in his face. "Your pride is getting the best of you. It's clouding your judgment and is impeding the safety of the group as a whole. I'm taking over."

And at that moment, Felix broke. He slapped Jenna in the face, grabbed her collar, and threw her like a rag doll. Kraden stepped in front of him, but Felix merely shoved him out of the way. Jenna's body twisted and tumbled in the sand. Felix sprang after her, tackling Jenna before she had the chance to get up. In a tangle of arms and legs, they both kicked up sand all about them, masking presence. Felix finally pinned her down and hammered her with punches until he was sure he had dented the armor. In a final bout of madness, Felix unsheathed his sword and was just about to hack at Jenna's helm.

"STOP!" a commanding voice, akin to that of a god, yelled.

It was Sheba. She was levitating now, and rings of psychic energy surrounded the wind Adept. Wind swirled around her, initiating a massive sandstorm. Her eyes were pure white, devoid of pupils as the wind picked up speed until it matched that of a hurricane.

"WE HAVE A MISSION!" Sheba boomed. "TO LIGHT THE FOUR ELEMENTAL LIGHTHOUSES, AND RESTORE THE POWER OF ALCHEMY TO MANKIND. AND WE CANNOT DO THAT IF WE ARE DEAD!" She turned to Felix. "FELIX, JENNA IS YOUR SISTER! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I COMMAND YOU TO STOP THIS MINDLESS QUARREL!"

Felix shocked at his actions, stepped back, and sheathed his sword. He had nearly killed Jenna, his own sister...over something as trivial as an argument between siblings.

Sheba returned the desert to its normal state and descended onto the sand. The color returned to her eyes. "Felix." Sheba shook her head. "Something _is_ wrong with you."

* * *

AN: Wow. I really didn't mean to bash Felix this much; he's my favorite GS character. Well, anyways, please be nice and R&R!


	2. Ambush

Felix sat by the fire, still deeply pondering the events that had transpired four hours ago. What had driven him to the brink of insanity that he had nearly murdered his own sister? He glanced over at Jenna. Her breathing was ragged, and they had managed to pry her breastplate open. Felix had not liked what he had seen. There were blotches all down her chest, and some of her ribs were broken. Felix continually cursed himself. Who knew what damage this would have done to her internal organs? Her heart could leaking blood, for all he knew.

Everyone else had eaten the daily rations of dried and sour Emu meat, and retreated to their sleeping bags. Felix shivered as a gust of wind blew past. He quickly sheltered the fire with his gloved hands to prevent it from blowing out. Felix placed himself closer to the fire, warming him slightly. The wind blew again, faster this time. Felix shook violently, instinctively drawing his arms to the center of his body. He realized his mistake too late, and attempted to shield the fire, but it had already gone out.

"Ah, Venus! Will my agony never cease?" Felix muttered. _The gods must be punishing me for my sudden outburst today,_ he thought. But he knew this was not merely an unfortunate event; it was dangerous for the group not to have a fire. Felix would have a very difficult time discerning if an enemy, or worse, an entire party, were about to ambush them.

Felix suddenly sensed movement behind him. In one single movement he jumped up, spun, and unsheathed his sword. His eyes darted around, straining to see through the dark. Seeing and hearing nothing, he glanced at the remnants of the fire. The embers were still hot: perhaps he could restart the fire. Felix sheathed his sword and carefully picked up the charred remains of the fire. Felix slowly started to blow, and the embers glowed slightly.

There was movement again, this time about ten feet in front of him. Felix glanced up, but kept his attention on restarting the fire. He blew again: this time, the embers were hotter. Yet again, Felix heard movement to his left, and he could have sworn he saw the silhouette of a hand in the inky blackness. Felix continued to blow, until the branch lit up. He quickly placed it into the fire pit, and rifled through his pack for some oil.

There was movement again, this time to his left and right. Felix heard the two figures' slow and steady breathing, along with the smell of fetid meat.

Felix gagged, and withdrew the oil canister from his pack. He immediately poured on the small flame, setting the whole pile of wood into a roiling bonfire. Felix's vision went from a mere five feet in front of him to at least twenty. There were five Kobolds surrounding their camp, snarling, foaming at the mouth. They fawned for Felix's blood.

Felix's heart jumped, and he quickly withdrew his sword. "Ambush!" he shouted. Sheba and Kraden instantly awoke. Sheba immediately grabbed her staff, and Kraden backed away from the Kobolds.


	3. Scuffle in the Dust

**Author's Note:** Okay, I know I haven't written in two years, and I feel kind of bad about that. One thing I'd like to say is that there may be some logical errors in my storytelling, meaning things might not match up exactly with the first two chapters. It's nothing major, but for example, in this chapter, Felix's sword is in his tent, while I said he unsheathed it at the end of Chapter 2. The reason for this is because I wrote all of Chapter 3 before I realized this mistake, and so instead of going back and rewriting the fight scene so that he had his sword on him, I decided to just be lazy and leave it as I wrote it. But it's not that big of a deal, and that's why I left it unchanged. I like it this way anyway. Also, I may consider changing things about the Yampi Desert, like the scorpion boss fight––I might just leave that out because I'm eager to get to the Alhafra part. But we'll see.

I don't know if I have to say this, but

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any part of the Golden Sun franchise except copies of the first two games.

Felix, on instinct, reached for his dagger (he had left his broadsword in the tent). He had no time to look and see if Jenna or Sheba had heard his cry of warning, or if Kraden had started running to where the Kobolds wouldn't immediately slaughter him.

Dodging a swift attempted strike, Felix quickly slipped the dagger into the Kobold's right wrist, slitting the crucial tendons and rendering the adjacent hand useless. Wasting no time, he brought the dagger up to take out the eyes, going for the left one first––

The Kobold slammed Felix with its shield, thrusting him eight feet away and cracking his breastplate armor.

With the wind knocked out of him and slightly disoriented, Felix only caught the image of the pouncing Kobold just in time for him to attempt to kick the monster away, but Felix, in his stunned state, only managed to raise his leg up in weak protest, completely missing his target as it landed on top of him.

The Kobold raised its shield and began the downward thrust, aiming for Felix's neck. Desperate, Felix swung both of his arms as hard as he could at the descending object. It worked. Not only had the shield altered course and hit his armored chest, but Felix's ploy caught the Kobold by surprise, who was not expecting such a sluggishly uncoordinated maneuver from his enemy.

Felix pressed the advantage. He needed air _now_, and decided the smartest thing to do was to put some distance between him and the Kobold. Acting on this, Felix pushed a semi-closed fist into the Kobold's face to further delay it, then brought his legs up under him and launched the beast as far as he could.

But this was only about three feet. _He's one heavy bastard,_ Felix thought, _what with the armor and everything. Still, it's better than nothing._ Felix got up on his feet as quickly as he could, wheezing as he did so. He was very tempted to bend over and rest his hands on his knees, but there was no time for that. Felix abruptly realized he had lost his dagger, the only weapon he had. He glanced around, finding nothing. He looked back over at the Kobold––

The blow was less than half a second away. Felix was half-expecting it, though, and pivoted, grabbed the Kobold, and using its own momentum, shoved it into the sand. He wasted no time in pinning it face-first. There was a brief snarl or bark, the sort one would hear from a dog sneezing, and the Kobold turned its snout, locking its left eye with Felix's own. It tried to rise, which Felix controlled, barely, and punished with a short but powerful toe-kick to the rear-facing knee, breaking it.

The Kobold howled, but Felix quickly shoved its face into the sand, lest its companions hear its distress. The Kobold pushed its body partway into the air, supporting itself on the right arm with the lifeless hand. The left side of its body now up in the air, the Kobold swung its shield arm backwards, clipping Felix in the side of the face.

Felix shrugged off the blow and relocated all his body weight onto the Kobold's left shoulder. Even the monster's powerful, developed arms couldn't fight Felix's nigh-adult bodyweight, plus armor. Once the Kobold was fully in the sand once again, Felix placed his right knee on the Kobold's head. It fought and strained, but Felix ignored it.

He was beyond pissed. He was pretty damned tired of that shield. Anger and frustration were fueling his actions now, not fear and desperation, and Felix was not going to let this biped jackal get up again. Using the strength of both arms, Felix grabbed onto both ends of the round shield and tore it off the Kobold's arm in the most violent way possible.

The bones broke in several places. Felix threw away the shield, deliberately planted his left knee on the destroyed limb, and clamped the beast's jaw shut with his hand before yanking the head counterclockwise. The expected sickening _crack_ was heard, and the Kobold lay dead in the sand.

Felix was mostly recovered and now glanced around the camp to see how the others were faring. Sheba was fighting off two Kobolds with her Psynergy. She would have been able to handle it on her own, but Felix could not see Kraden or the other two Kobolds, those were questions he needed answered.

As Felix sprinted towards her, he found the tendrils of energy in his mind and forged Ragnarok, a weightless but immensely powerful sword fueled by Psynergy. Small orange motes of light appeared in an area around his right hand, and assembled into a glorious, gargantuan flaming sword of justice.

He was almost there. If Sheba was still in the vicinity when his swings connected, she could die. "Sheba!" Felix screamed. "Get out of the way!"

She got the message. Felix ran up behind the monsters and swung Ragnarok as fast as he could. He caught them both at the base of the spine.

The two Kobolds were instantly blown apart by the following explosion. It sent a dense shock wave outward, then became a blazing column of fire that threatened to scorch Sheba and Felix and added to the height of the flames that were devouring the remains of the Kobolds. The sand was as black as the night sky within a seven-foot radius. Felix probably didn't need to slay two slightly intelligent animals in such a spectacular way, but Ragnarok was the first thing he could think of.

"Sheba," Felix said, "Where is Jenna?"

"She's fine," Sheba replied. "She's still inside the tent. I made sure those two didn't get to her."

"Where are the other two?"

"What other two?"

"The other two Kobolds, Sheba!" Felix said impatiently. "There were five. Three are dead, where are the other two?"

"Felix, there were only three."

"For Gaia's sake, Sheba, don't argue with me! There were five! I counted."

"No, Felix! There were only three."

Now Felix was getting angry. _I was just starting to calm down, too,_ he thought. "Really, Sheba! Then please tell me, where the hell is Kraden?"

"Um, I'm right here," a shaky voice said from ten feet away.

"Kraden? Where were you?" Felix interrogated, suddenly angry that he was wrong.

"I…I was inside the tent, with Jenna…"

_What did you do to her, you sick…_ a sudden uninvited thought began, but one Felix brushed aside, though puzzled by it. "Has she recovered? Is she fit to travel?" Felix asked Sheba.

"I don't know, Felix… You really did some damage the other day."

"We can't afford to stay in this desert a day longer than absolutely necessary. We have got to get to Alhafra. We don't have much food left. Haven't the herbs and nuts done any good?"

"None that I can tell, Felix. She only woke up once tonight, right before we were about to go to bed. I'd say she needs another day of rest at least. But maybe you could try to heal her," Sheba finished with a disgustingly hopeful face that Felix stared at with a practiced cynical disdain.

_No,_ Felix immediately decided. He sucked at the healing arts, and to try to do what he could would probably only tire him out and emit no results. The group needed him to be a leader, and he wouldn't be able to make rational decisions if he was exhausted. This turned his attention to another problem: supplies. They needed food, and, more importantly, water, but that would be pretty hard to come by. Maybe the Kobolds would have some. The Kobolds could be a great source of––

Felix's train of thought halted. That would be disgusting, but they might have to in order to survive. The Kobold he killed could certainly be edible. As for the other two slain by Ragnarok, he wasn't so sure. And what about the last two he saw? They must have escaped––he wasn't imagining things. They'd have to keep an eye out for the rest of their travel through Yampi Desert.

"Fine. We will stay here one more day. But then we move. No exceptions." With that resolute statement finished, Felix went over to the Kobold he had killed, so he could extract the meat for cooking, but not before finding his trusted dagger embedded in the sand.


End file.
